Spicy Peanut Sauce

Recipe from Steven Raichlen's Barbecue! Bible Beer-Can Chicken

Throughout Southeast Asia, peanut sauces are enjoyed. Indeed, you’ll find two in this book. But this one is the simplest, containing few ingredients — all of which come from jars or bottles. Hoisin sauce is a salty-sweet, purplish sauce made from soybeans, sugar, and spices. The Thai sweet chile sauce, nuoe cham ga, is syrupy and only mildly spicy. For extra spice, you could add a spoonful of fiery tuong ot tuoi, a Vietnamese chile paste, or Indonesian sambal oelek (also a chile paste). These ingredients are readily available at Asian markets, natural foods stores, and in the ethnic foods section of most supermarkets. The peanut sauce will keep for several months in a covered container in the refrigerator, but, trust me, it’s so good you won’t have it around for more than a week.